Tells
by WakingUpInWonderland
Summary: <html><head></head>Skye knew when you lived on a plane with five other people, it was impossible not to get familiar with peoples...quirks. Or as Fitz would say, their tells. In which Skye finds out why Jemma's tells might be the most intriguing of all.</html>


Skye knew when you lived on a plane with five other people, it was impossible not to get familiar with peoples...quirks. Or as Fitz would say, their tells. And while it may not have worked out in the way he had had hoped in his poker game with Ward, since then Skye couldn't help but notice things about her other team members that she hadn't before.

Some things Skye hadn't expected, but she could understand them. Like how May would slip away before they went into the field and checked everyone's gear, replacing any faulty ones with her own. Or how Coulsen would walk the halls after he thought everyone had gone to bed and listen at each of their doors to make sure they were alright after particularly hard missions.

Other things came as more of a surprise. Ward and Fitz, for all their differences in, well, everything, would worked together tuning and detailing all of the vehicles without any of Fitz's gadgets. Coulsen liked to relax by baking things from scratch. May binge watching fantasy and sci-fi movies when she couldn't sleep. That had been particularly weird to discover. Skye had gone for a glass of water and found May curled up watching hobbits trying to destroy the One Ring instead. The glare shed received had been enough to not tell the others.

The one Skye found the most intriguing was with Simmons: her moods could always be told by the kind of ice cream she chose to have. It wasn't something Skye noticed until after she started sharing a freezer with the other girl. The boys had begun raiding the stash of popsicles Skye kept in the freezer and Simmons took pity on her, showing Skye the freezer in the lab where Simmons kept her own hidden stash of Ben and Jerry's. Apparently the incident with the cat had been enough for Fitz to refuse to share any source of refrigeration with Simmons in their shared lab spaces over the years, and thankfully the confines of the Bus hadn't changed that.

Skye found herself not even minding having to walk the extra distance when she needed a midnight snack. Simmons was almost always working late and always willing to join Skye for a break. Soon what started off as a way of keeping her frozen treats safe turned into a way to get to know the other girl better, and Skye began to look forward to their late night talks.

The incident with Dr. Hall made Skye begin to notice the ice cream. Jemma, she insisted Skye call her as the went from just teammates to friends, had been quiet that night, focusing on the swirls of caramel and marshmallow in her Phish Food as if they were one of her specimens. Skye hadn't known what to say. What was there to say when such an important role model in her life was suddenly gone? Skye had never lost anyone that close, so when she reached for the other girls hand she was doing the only thing she could think of. Jemma's smile had been small, but Skye considered it a victory.

After that, Skye began to notice a pattern. Banana Split or Cherry Garcia meant Jemma was content, Peach Cobbler or Milk&Cookies that she was thinking of home. Half Baked and something on an experiment was giving her trouble, and Chunky Monkey when she had it solved. Any flavor with coffee and her work that night was just getting started, while Cookie Dough meant she was done for the night. Chocolate meant something was on her mind, and it had a scale: the more intense the chocolate was, the more severe the issue was.

Skye knew it was a long shot, she had even asked Fitz once if he had noticed anything similar in the years he had known the other girl only to have him look at her like shed grown a second head. But given how intertwined Jemma's emotions were to her work, Skye liked to imagine her 'system' gave her some hidden insight. Something that shed light on what made the other girl tick.

So when she found Jemma hunched over the lab table looking intently at the pint firmly in one hand, she was more than a little concerned. Retrieving her own snack from the freezer, an orange creamsicle, Skye peeked at the name pint as she sat down. Chocolate Therapy: defcon one on what she had dubbed the ChocoSeverity scale.

Her stomach twisted uncomfortably for a moment as she ran through a list of what it could be. There wasn't a mission going horribly wrong, her experiments were going well if the animated talk they'd that afternoon was anything to go by, and her parents were off somewhere in Italy for a second honeymoon. Skye frowned. So that just left-

"Is there something going on between you and Fitz?"

Jemma jumped slightly at the sudden question and looked at Skye in alarm.

"What?"

Skye fidgeted slightly, suddenly felt dumb for asking. There wasn't anything to indicate something had happened between they scientific duo so of course it was a completely random question. But the her system wasn't wrong, so she opened her mouth to ask again. Unfortunately the combination of the sudden onslaught of nerves with the perplexed look on Jemma's face had her blurt out

"The ice cream."

Jemma looked even more confused, and it would have been cute if Skye wasn't wishing for a hole to open up and swallow her. Or, well, eject her?

"I'm sorry Skye, now there's something wrong with my ice cream?"

_Aw fuck it. _She already sounded crazy so she might as well go all out.

"It's Chocolate Therapy." Jemma said nothing, just raised an eyebrow so Skye continued. "You have Chocolate Therapy when something's bothering you. Like, really bothering you. I was just, I was wondering if it had anything to do with Fitz."

A look of understanding passed over the other girls face and she gave Skye an amused smile. "There's nothing going on between Fitz and I."

"Oh."

The amused grin didn't leave Jemma's face and Skye could feel her own start to flush. Thank god for tan skin. "That's, that's good."

Jemma hummed and took another bite of her ice cream, her eyes never leaving Skye. She fiddled with the now bare popsicle stick as she willed her cheeks to cool down. An awkward silence had fallen over them as Jemma looked at her in an amused expectation and Skye didn't know what to say. She looked down and cleared her throat.

"So, nothing's going on then? I mean, you were looking at that pint pretty hard for everything to be okay."

The amused look on Jemma's face fell away and she sighed. She took another bite of her ice cream.

"Nothing's going on between Fitz and I-"

"You've said that."

"-but I do have a lot on my mind."

"Oh?" Skye perked up. Her system hadn't been wrong after all. "Anything I can help with?"

"Oh, um, you see it's really not that big of a deal."

"Come on Jemma. I know I'm not that great at the whole science-y biology brain..thing, but I've been told I'm a really good listener. By you, actually. Several times." Jemma fidgeted, playing with the pint in her hands. Skye could see a faint blush beginning to form on the other and it was her turn for an amused smile.

"Unless it's not about science." Seeing the blush deepen it was all Skye could do to keep from squealing, because she didn't squeal. She propped herself up on the table with her arms and lean forward instead. "Come on Jemma, talk to me!"

Jemma cleared her throat before mumbling something. When Skye's only response was to raise an eyebrow Jemma sighed before trying again.

"I was thinking about...someone...who I think I've developed feelings for in a way that's more than friendly."

Whatever Skye had been expecting, it hadn't been that.

"Oh."

She sat back down and looked at the other girl, who was now back to staring at her pint intently. Huh, so Jemma had a crush on somebody.

_There's nothing going on between Fitz and I._

Somebody who wasn't Fitz. Skye had never assumed the science duo feelings for each other one way or another, the whole thing about assumptions and asses and what not, but it had been hard not to notice how close the two were sometimes. Maybe it came from growing up together, but Skye had never had anything like that before so she had nothing to compare it too. Her stomach fluttered uncomfortably as thoughts of a darker skinned agent came to mind.

"Does uh, does he know you like him?"

Jemma winced slightly before sighing sadly and shaking her head. Skye nodded her head, knowing it could be because of her closeness with Fitz that Tripp hadn't noticed anything yet.

"Okay, well, do you know if he might like you back?"

This time Jemma actually snorted. "No, they definitely don't think about me that way at all."

The look of defeat on the other girls face made Skye's chest ache, before being replaced by anger. She took Jemma's hand in her own and squeezed it.

"Yeah well, fuck him, it's his loss Jemma. You are so sweet and kind and caring, not to mention ridiculously smart and absolutely beautiful, and if Tripp can't see that then just fuck-"

"Tripp?" The look of confusion on Jemma's face for the second time that night was enough for Skye to stop in confusion too.

"Huh?"

"You said Tripp."

"Well, yeah, I said- isn't he who you like?"

"I don't have feelings for Tripp, Skye."

"Oh."

Skye watched as the blush from earlier returned to Jemmas cheeks, this time in full force. The hand being held in her own began to fidget and Jemma was refusing to meet her gaze.

_Oh_.

The nervousness from earlier returned. This time Skye smiled in response. Keeping her voice as normal as possible so Jemma wouldn't be able to hear the smile in Skye's voice, she asked "So, have you told this person that you have feelings for them?"

When Jemma shook her head in response Skye scooted forward and pressed on. "Why not?"

She was positively buzzing with anticipation as she watched Jemma take her hand out of Skye's and move to put the already melted ice cream back in the freezer as she fumbled with excuses about being too different and having nothing in common. Skye slipped from her seat and followed behind quietly, humming in the appropriate places. She slipped her arms around Jemmas waist freezer shut, being prepared to lean back as Jemma spun, eyes wide in surprise.

"Skye..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at Skye in what could only be described as terrified hopefulness.

"Jemma?"

"Yes?"

Their voices weren't more than a whispers, and she could feel the other girl trembling lightly in her arms. Skye smiled and leaned forward so their foreheads were touching.

"You should try telling them."

And when Jemma closed the distance between their lips, Skye could help but smile as she answered back.


End file.
